Good “Buy for Life” Brands
Good “Buy for Life” Brands
Some that come to mind are:
Benchmade - knives Darn Tough - socks Carhartt - good work gear Doc martens - footwear
What are some good reputable brands that you have had for 5 years + with little to no issues or with a lifetime warranty.
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Used to be a fan of Benchmade; kinda seems like they went cheap more recently.
For footware, I've had pretty good luck with Danners - they had an ABU compliant stitched sole boot that was super comfortable; one pair got me through 4 years of active duty, and remain my go-to pair of work boots. The ABU uniform was phased out since I separated, so if you're lucky you might be able to find a crazy good deal at at military surplus store; otherwise I'm sure they've got a newer OCP boot now.
I didn’t think about military surplus stores. There seems to be some items that people really enjoy, like the army poncho liners or old ammo canisters for containers.
I’ve been looking for a genuine army poncho liner but can only find knock offs online and cant find a reputable surplus store online if it exists
I was Air Force, so no idea if our rain gear was comparable to the Army poncho. Ours didn't strike me as anything special, but then again the one I was issued was several sizes too large, so I kinda hated that thing by default.
The best military surplus stores are going to be the ones near military bases - they have constant stream of new inventory coming in from folks who separate and want to make a quick buck pawning off their issued shit.
And while there are definitely a few gems among military inventory, don't make the mistake of thinking military = high quality or even high durability. To the contrary, most of it's the result of bidding wars for a government contract, resulting in the absolute cheapest shit available.
Idr the brand, but sticking with the boots example, the ones I was issued in basic training barely made it to the end of basic training. Those things were absolute trash.
The poncho liner is often referred to as a woobie if you know that name. Afaik the "on brand" ones are made by the blind kids. Something something school for the blind or whatever it is.
I'm actually having a hard time finding a shot the ABU rain gear liner that I was issued... closest I'm seeing is the pic below, but that thing actually looks decent.
Ours was a material that looked similar to that, but shaped more like a vest - nothing went over our arms. It was completely nonfunctional outside of the actual raincoat shell though - you couldn't just wear like a vest or put it under the ABU top for a little extra warmth. It was cut in a way that it'd just fall off without being buttoned into the shell.
...I wonder if there was some supply issue, and the ones we were issued were a shitty backup. /shrug.
The woobies basically look like a blanket made out of that material with paracord to tie the ends to the poncho.